How to talk about Future in French : Le Futur Simple

Talking about the Future in French requires you to be familiar with the Future tenses.

When French students usually start learning to talk about the future, they start off with Le Futur Simple,  since it’s the most commonly used.

Stay tuned, to learn how to talk about your future plans, predictions, or assumptions in French.

After reading this article, you’ll get a full understanding of French regular and irregular verbs in Future Simple.

What is Le Futur Simple ?

Le futur simple indicates that an action will occur in the future. In English, the Future Simple is equivalent to the will-future tense. This tense is mostly used for plans or intentions for the future, as well as for making predictions about the future.

The future tense is conjugated by adding the endings -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez and -ont to the infinitive of the verb.

Please note that we spell “le futur” without an -E in French.

The Future in English

The future tense uses the auxiliary will (or shall) + the main verb:

• I will (l’ll) speak French.

How to make Future Tense in French (Regular Verbs)

In French, we do not use any auxiliary to form the future tense. The future tense is indicated by the verb endings, that are added to the infinitive form.

We add these endings “ai, as, a, ons, ez, ont” to the verb infinitive. Be careful to add the ending to the whole infinitive (including -er, or – it). Make sure to :

• keep the infinitive of -er and –ir verbs, for example, donner, finir
• drop the final -e if the infinitive finished with -re verbs: for example, attendre  (attend)
• Add the correct ending to the stem, depending on whether you are talking about je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils or elles. The endings are the same for -er, -ir and -re verbs.

Let’s take the verb parler. We take the infinitive, add the endings, and voilà.

PARLER + endings → parlerai, parleras, parlera, parlerons, parlerez, parleront

• Je parlerai
• tu parleras
• il parlera
• nous parlerons
• vous parlerez
• ils parleront

You’ll notice that the future endings look very much like the present tense of avoir. This is a good way to remember them for your French written test.

(Note that the ‘s’ or the ‘as’ and the ‘t’ of the ‘ont’ are silent).

Spelling changes in -er verbs

As with the present and imperfect tenses, a few -er verbs change their spellings slightly in the future tense.

• Verbs finishing in -eler 

In verbs ending in -eler, such as appeler (meaning to call), the l doubles throughout the future tense.

Double consonants (ll) affect the pronunciation of the word.

The first e in appeler sounds like the vowel sound at the end of the English word teacher, whereas the first e in appellerai sounds like the one in the English word pet.

• j’appellerai
• tu appelleras
• il/elle/on appellera
• nous appellerons
• vous appellerez
• ils/elles appelleront

  There are two exceptions to this rule, geler ( to freeze) and peler ( to peel), which change in the same way as lever.

• Verbs finishing in – eter

With verbs such as jeter (meaning to throw), that end in –eter, the t doubles throughout the future tense.

The double consonant (tt) impacts the pronunciation of the word. In jeter, the first e sounds like the vowel sound at the end of the English word teacher, but in jetterai the first e sounds like the one in the English word pet.

• je jetterai
• tu jetteras
• il/elle/on jettera
• nous jetterons
• vous jetterez
• ils/elles jetteront

The exceptions to this rule include acheter (to buy ) that changes the same as lever.

• Verbs finishing in -yer

Verbs such as nettoyer ( to clean), that end in -yer, the –y changes to –i throughout the future tense.

• je nettoierai
• tu nettoieras
• il/elle/on nettoiera
• nous nettoierons
• vous nettoierez
• ils/elles nettoieront

• Verbs finishing in -ayer

Verbs ending in -ayer, such as payer (to pay) and essayer ( to try), can be spelled with either –ay or –i.

So je paierai and je payerai, for example, are both correct.

Je paye/paie

Tu payes/paies

Il/Ell/On paye/paie

Nous payons

Vous payez

Ils/Elles paient/ payent

• Accent change

With verbs such as lever (meaning to raise), peser (meaning to weigh), and acheter (meaning to buy), e changes to è throughout the future tense. In lever the first e sounds like the vowel sound at the end of the English word teacher, but in lèverai and so on the first e sounds like the one in the English word pet.

• Je lèverai
• Tu lèveras
• Il/Elle/ On lèvera
• Nous lèverons
• Vous lèverez
• Ils/Elles lèveront

How to make Future Tense with Irregular Verbs

Many French verbs, however, have an irregular stem that must be memorized. Thankfully, the endings are always regular, so only the stem of the verb changes.

In the French future tense, an R sound always precedes the ending, and that’s one of the ways you’ll easily recognize the future tense.

Here is our list of the most common Irregular Verbs in French

• être –  ser
• avoir – aur
• faire –  fer
• aller – ir
• venir –  viendr
• voir –  verrai
• recevoir –  recevr
• savoir –  saur
• vouloir –  voudr
• devoir –  devr
• pouvoir –  pourr

Here, you can practice conjugating the French verbs in the Future Simple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L732xukgkWw&ab_channel=LingoLearner

When to use the Future Simple in French

In the following cases, we use the future simple:

•   Talk about your future plans

•   Making predictions or assumptions about the future.

• In conditional sentences (if statements)

Now, try making a sentence on your own.

Talking about Future in French

Although memorizing all these irregular verb stems may seem simple on paper, coming up with the right French verb form quickly is one of the most challenging tasks for French learners.

Practice makes perfect! Here, you can put your knowledge to the test, with  Future Simple exercise. 

Learning French verb forms in the Future Tense requires you to develop an ear for them and learn them in context to be able to use them correctly.